Maybe by the next morning they would start to look, but by that point who knew where I’d be. The Baxter brothers could get me all the way to Locke by then without anyone being the wiser.
At least it’s not Faci this time, I thought. Faci was a bloodthirsty vampire and had a cruelty about him that took my breath away. But I didn’t dwell on that thought; it wasn’t healthy. And anyhow, the fiery bonds that were keeping me locked in place were starting to hurt, digging and stinging into my skin unlike anything I had ever felt before. I couldn’t have kept my attention on something else if I wanted to.
I urged my body to calm down. The worst of the pain was that my finger was throbbing, so much so that I could barely breathe. They must have tried to remove my ring while I lay there unconscious, I thought. It was universally considered a terrible violation to remove a paranormal’s ring, but that must not have stopped the Baxters from trying. Malle could probably have managed it without killing me - or herself - but the Baxter brothers had nearly destroyed my hand and they still hadn’t gotten the ring.
I bit back a cry of pain, knowing that whining wasn’t going to do any good. There was at least a little bit of benefit to the fact that I couldn’t see; I probably would have fainted if I had actually seen my wounds.
The bonds that held me in place also kept me from using my magic or moving. I wished I had a Contact Stone, something I could use to call Sip and Lisabelle. They’d be furious, I knew, and they could probably find a way to help.
After a while, with no warning, a shooting fire rushed over me. I cried out and cried again, but no one came. It was like I had been thrown into an incinerator that burned my skin and all the air around me. I couldn’t breathe and I didn’t want to move, while all around me there was a rushing and a crashing as the fire devastated everything in its path. I wanted to scream, but I knew that if I opened my mouth it would be burned.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the flames stopped and everything was quiet. For a long time I didn’t move. Instead, I took stock of my body. Did I still have my skin? Yes. Did I still have my hair? I thought so.
Eventually, once I dared to try the slightest bit of motion, I realized what the fire had burned away. My bonds were gone, as was my blindfold. The fire had set me free.
I struggled, but I couldn’t fight against the rising tide. Finally, I stopped fighting and fainted, and all my efforts not to dream failed.
With my body so battered, I had no choice but to soar through clouds of air, buffeted to wherever the wind took me. I saw many things, most of which I didn’t want to see. I saw Betsy smiling. She waved, but before I could say anything she turned away. I saw Dirr, but she was off in the distance. I wished I could tell whether she was happy or not. There were no smells, just fresh air and sunshine. I spread my arms wide, taking it all in. There were more things to see than my eyes could focus on. In one direction there was a feast with a lot of happy pixies, and there, on the other side of my vision, were fallen angels singing together. But no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t see paranormals cooperating with each other. I was floating faster, my legs dangling beneath me. I didn’t look at them, because I didn’t want to see charred skin, burnt flesh, or torn clothing. Instead, I inhaled and smiled.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stay focused on the positives.
The images got darker from there. I saw the puppy Faci had killed. He was surrounded by the artifacts we were trying so desperately to protect. He looked at me and wagged his tail. I fought tears even as I smiled. I sighed, wishing he hadn’t had to die, wishing I could have saved him. I took a little comfort in the fact that he no longer had any wounds that needed to be healed. I could probably thank a fallen angel for that.
I looked up.
Yes, a fallen angel. My face split into a smile. Keller was standing in front of me, his hands tucked into his jean pockets. Our eyes met and I melted. I forgot the clouds and the feasts, the puppy and the warmth. I just saw Keller. I sighed. This was way better than whatever prison the Baxters had me in.
“Where are you?” he asked, reaching his hands out to catch me. Our fingers linked and our palms held. They fit together so perfectly that I looked at them in wonder, feeling the warmth from our combined touch suffuse me.
I looked up from under my eyelashes and his smile got wider.
“What do you mean?” I murmured. “I’m here with you.”
He shook his head and pressed closer to me until our thighs touched.
“I’m looking for you. When you didn’t come back to Astra I went looking, but I haven’t found you yet. Where are you?” His face clouded and his frown line was back. His concern warmed my heart just as it upset me.
“I don’t know,” I said, pleading with my eyes for him not to be angry. “I didn’t mean to get attacked. Honest. I had to see President Vale. I really was trying to take care of myself.”
Although Keller and I didn’t see eye to eye on my safety, I would never knowingly have put myself at risk, or so I often told myself. I also knew it wasn’t totally true. If one of my friends had been in danger, of course I would have taken any kind of risk to save her, or him. But this time I hadn’t meant to do that at all, I had just wanted to see Vale, as instructed. It hadn’t worked out very well, and now all I wanted to do was figure out where I was so I could tell Keller.
“What should I do?” I asked.
“Who has you?” His thumbs were rubbing gently along the web between my thumb and my index finger and it was hard to concentrate on anything else.
“The Baxter brothers,” I said. “Great stupid gits.”
“What’s this?” he murmured, holding up the hand with my ring on it. My finger was raw and bleeding. Some of the skin was black and burned. I flinched. I wasn’t in pain, but my hurt digit throbbed dully and I knew I’d be lucky not to lose the finger.
I shrugged. “I was unconscious, but I think they tried to get my ring off.”
Keller’s face turned dark and angry. “That’s against paranormal law.”
“I don’t think following paranormal law is really one of their top priorities,” I said dryly. My humor was turning dry and sarcastic like Lisabelle’s, but Keller’s absent smile seemed to mean that he still enjoyed it.
Gently, so that I barely felt his lips, he bent down to kiss my hand. I held perfectly still, afraid of waking from this wonderful dream, and instead of pulling away after a moment, Keller kept his lips there, gently kissing down the length of my finger. I sighed happily.
“There,” he murmured. “That’s better.”
When he saw that I wasn’t looking at my finger but at him, he chuckled and squeezed my fingers tightly.
“The brothers can’t help it. I’m sure they’re just taking orders,” he said. “Though that’s hardly an excuse.”
“They wanted to find the Mirror Arcane,” I said, chewing on my lower lip. “I thought they were the ones who took it, and from what they said, they’ve obviously been inside Astra. But it wasn’t the brothers who took the Mirror, and I can’t even begin to guess who did.”
Keller could see that I was starting to worry. He let go of my hands, and instantly my fingers felt a little colder. But he had only done it so that he could wrap his arms around my shoulder and press his lips to my forehead. I wrapped my arms around his waist and linked my fingers, refusing to let go.
“Don’t worry,” he murmured into my hair, pressing his cheek to the top of my head. “I’ll find you. We’ll keep looking.”
I hadn’t felt afraid until that moment. Maybe it was all the fights I’d been in, but it had never crossed my mind that the Baxter brothers would harm me . . . permanently. Now it did and I felt cold.
“Okay,” I murmured. “Promise?”
“I promise,” he said. “We don’t have that many more places to try, anyway.”
I sighed and pulled him closer, enjoying the feel of my face pressed against his hard chest. My hands were linked right under the place
where his dark wings released, and that reminded me that it had been a long time since I had seen him flying. Now wasn’t the time to bring it up, though. Now all I wanted to do was savor the moments I had with him until I woke up.
“Do I look very terrible?” I asked, pulling away enough to meet his sparkling blue eyes.
“No. Never! What are you talking about?” he asked, leaning back so he could see my face.
“The burns,” I said. “There was a fire. I don’t know what caused it, but it burned everything. I thought I was dead.”
“You don’t look dead to me,” he said. “Although you might look a little peaked,” he teased. I rolled my eyes, then grinned. Only Keller could bring a smile to my face so quickly.
Then I saw the understanding dawn across his features.
“Oh,” he said. “Now I understand! I saw the smoke.”
“What are you talking about?” I tried to keep him from pulling away, but I couldn’t. My arms felt bereft when they were empty of him.
“I know where you are!” he said happily. “I’m coming. Just stay there.”
“Do you want me to stay here or go back to my body?” I called after him, but he was already moving away. His back was to me as he rushed down through the clouds and out of sight.
I closed my eyes tightly and wished myself back into my body. Slowly, the warm air flowing around me faded and I no longer felt sun on my face. The weightless floating sensation I had been enjoying disappeared and I returned to feeling stiff and battered. I waited a long time after I felt that way to open my eyes.
The room was dark and my eyes felt like my jailers had scraped something over my eyeballs, but I forced them to blink several times. Each time they adjusted more. Then I felt around me. The dirt was no longer wet. In fact, it was bone dry, probably thanks to the inferno the room had been not long ago.
Luckily, my body was intact. My skin wasn’t burned, and the only sign of what I had just been through was my tattered clothing. Well, Keller won’t mind that, I thought ruefully.
I forced myself into a seated position, but my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and my back hurt. Once I felt confident I got to my knees, then slowly to my feet. My body felt like the fire had beaten it.
I clenched and unclenched my fingers, trying to force circulation back through them. Even my ring finger was fine; at least that wasn’t a dream. Nothing with Keller was ever truly a dream, and yet just the fact that he existed and was mine was the most wonderful fantasy.
I heard the clatter of feet from somewhere nearby, dulled by the stone that surrounded me. I tried to hurry forward but stumbled in my haste. Then Keller showed up and I knew where I was: in the catacombs, my least favorite place on the grounds of Public.
Later I would wonder about how sure I had been that the footsteps clattering toward me were Keller’s. Maybe I had just hoped really hard and it turned out to be true. But when he burst through the doors and my eyes - my real eyes, not the eyes I saw with in the clouds - blinked at the blaze of silver light that came with him, I had never been so sure of anything in my life.
His face was a blaze of concern and fury, and his dark, thick wings were spread out behind him. It felt like forever since I had seen him, and only minutes. Both were true in a way, but it felt entirely normal for my heart to hammer wildly inside my rib cage and my breath to come short as our eyes met.
I ordered my tired body to smile, then realized that I already was. That’s what love does to you, it gives you strength you never knew you had, even though you always knew you’d need it.
I staggered to my feet, but my legs wouldn’t hold me up. Keller swooped in and caught me, murmuring heartsweet in my ear as I wrapped my arms gratefully around his strength.
We stood like that for a long time. I was reluctant to let go, and I was glad that he felt the same way. After a while, though, we were forced apart by the sounds of a battle above us, and if I had learned anything from my semesters at Public, it was that the best thing to do when I heard a battle was to run toward the fighting - not away.
With our hands firmly clasped, we raced upward.
The roar of noise was deafening as we burst out of the catacombs onto the first floor of the Long Building. The corridor was lit with the power of magical rings. They blazed so strongly that at first I couldn’t distinguish who was who amidst the rainbow of colors. But as my eyes adjusted, I quickly realized that two darkness mages, the Baxter brothers, were fighting off the professors and committee members of Public. Dove stood at the front of the group that appeared to be attacking Vale’s seconds in command. Professor Erikson and Oliva flanked him. Behind, I could see Korba, Zervos, and many of the other professors.
The Baxter brothers were flanked by two Fire Whips, and I wondered where the other Fire Whips had gotten to. But it didn’t matter right now. The instant Professor Erikson spotted me, she motioned for me to run.
The Baxter brothers also caught sight of me, but they didn’t appear to care. Their goal was the artifacts, not my death.
I wanted to protest Erikson’s command. I could help! But Keller still had my hand, and he didn’t think twice. He pulled me away, and even in my disoriented state I immediately realized where we were going.
The front door of the Museum of Masks was locked, but I had put the key Dacer had given me around my neck, and it still hung there underneath my shirt for safekeeping.
Now I fumbled, my fingers still numb from my captivity. I caught a glimpse of rope burns around my wrist and swallowed hard. They were going to hurt later.
Once I had the key out it scraped against the lock, and my hands were shaking so hard I couldn’t fit it properly. Reaching around so that his chest was pressed against my back and his arms enveloped mine, Keller turned the key for me. I wanted to just rest my head against his chest and sleep, but the sounds of the battle raging behind us forced me to stay alert.
Once we were in the Museum I felt safer. The room was black, but a faint light filtered in through the windows that faced out onto Public’s open field. I felt bad that I hadn’t spent any time there all semester; the masks were covered in a thin layer of dust. But I knew Dacer would understand.
In this version of the Museum, all the masks were closer together than they had been in the old building. There were just two rooms instead of five, so Volans masks were there right alongside elemental masks. It made me wish the paranormal groups could mix and cooperate as easily as the masks.
Keller wrapped his arm around my shoulders as we huddled together. The sounds of the battle were getting louder, and I could only imagine what was happening as lizards and hellhounds joined the fight.
Suddenly there was a banging on the door. I gasped, but it flew open before I could react any further. Framed by the lights of the paranormals was Vale. With the Museum in darkness, she couldn’t see Keller and me standing right there as she hurried forward. Her hair was a mess and her dress was torn. I wondered what she had been doing.
“Stop her,” cried a familiar voice from the hallway we had just come through. Lisabelle, closely followed by Sip, Lough, and Trafton, came charging through the door. Lisabelle’s sleeves were shoved back and her wand blazed.
Unlike Vale, she knew Keller and I were there.
“Didn’t I yell for you to stop her?” she panted as Vale skidded to a halt, looking wildly around.
“Don’t hurt her,” cried Dobrov, coming through the crowd. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Lisabelle looked like her head was about to explode. She tried to speak several times, while the rest of us just stood staring at Dobrov. Finally, Lisabelle was able to manage, “I’m sorry. You must be mistaking me for an idiot. Or a nice person. Or some dreadful combination of the two. Are you INSANE?”
“Most argue that he is,” said Sip, finally in agreement with her roommate. “The whole hybrid thing.”
“Yes, I know,” cried Lisabelle. “But I thought he knew it too. He can’t possibly expect us to - well, it
’s just too fantastical.” She was massaging her arm, and I had the horrible idea that she was trying to keep her powers from simply shooting out of her and killing Vale and maybe several of the rest of us as well.
Dobrov stood his ground. Given who his sister was, I could imagine he had had some practice in standing up to strong women. But Lisabelle wasn’t giving in easily.
“What about Betsy? She’s never going to be the same after what happened to her in the waterways,” said Lisabelle.
“She didn’t die,” said Dobrov. “She’s going to be fine. My mother didn’t mean for her to die. Please give her a chance to stand before the committee. Let them decide.”
The tension in the room was palpable. Lisabelle looked at me and Keller. She could see how exhausted I was, so I was glad when I didn’t even have to tell her to give Dobrov the benefit of the doubt.
Finally, she sighed and rolled her eyes. “You paranormals and your second chances . . . mind-boggling. Okay, I guess we can go along with that.”
Sip crossed her arms over her chest and looked around with a disapproving expression.
“Uh oh,” Lisabelle said. “I guess I spoke too soon. My roommate is about to make some grand pronouncement.”
“I don’t like it,” the werewolf muttered, her brow puckered.
“I don’t either. Why couldn’t this be happening when we have finals to take?” Lough said with despair.
“The paranormal gods do not like you,” said Lisabelle to the dream giver, quirking an eyebrow. “It’s almost finals time. But I’m pretty sure that after our current president is arrested, we won’t have to take them.”
“If they don’t like me, how do they feel about you?” Lough said.
Elemental Fire (Paranormal Public Series) Page 24